


Maybe, One Day

by Anonymous



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Canon Compliant, Childhood Friends, Childhood Memories, F/M, Growing Up, Growing Up Together, Lily Evans Potter & Severus Snape Friendship, Love Confessions, Love Triangles, Rejection, Sad Ending, Sad Severus Snape, Teasing, Time Skips, Unrequited Love, Unresolved Romantic Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-28
Updated: 2020-01-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:28:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22443340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Sometimes letting them down gently is the cruelest thing you can do.
Relationships: Lily Evans Potter & Severus Snape, Lily Evans Potter/Severus Snape
Comments: 6
Kudos: 18
Collections: Anonymous





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've been possessed by the idea that Lily purposely gave Severus false hope every now and then to maintain their status quo, so I had to write this to get it out of my system. Set sometime during their childhood, before attending Hogwarts.

“Oh, Sevvy! Don’t tell me you’re in love with me, or something!” Lily playfully punched his arm, an action she expected him to return in kind—and stilled when he did not. Severus simply looked down at the floor and scowled instead, his pale face soon turning about as red as her hair.

“And so what if I was?!” Severus wailed, trying his best to sound tough, and managing to sound half his actual age in the process. Lily gasped, curiously looking only half as shocked as he thought she’d be.

“Oh, Severus…!” He flinched at that. It was never a good sign when she bothered to use the rest of his name. “I don’t know…I mean, we’re still so young—”

“That doesn’t matter!” Snape protested, cheeks growing hotter. “I have it all planned out, already! All _you_ have to do is say yes.”

“Say yes to what?” Lily cocked her head to the side, a rare frown making its way onto her soft features. Snape sighed. What little patience he had left was wearing thin.

“To being m-my g-girlfriend, of course.” Severus cursed under his breath—all those weeks of practicing in front of the mirror, and still, he managed to flub the most important line! Now she’d never say yes! Tears threatened to prick at his eyes before he willed them back, not wanting to embarrass himself in front of the love of his life any further.

After a short, thoughtful moment, Snape jumped at the foreign warmth of Lily’s hand on his shoulder, gently squeezing.

“I’m sorry, Severus. I can’t say yes now.” She didn’t have to say anymore - the young, heartbroken boy had already heard enough. Before he could turn on his heel to leave, Lily grabbed his arm to stop him. Snape tried not to look too happy about it. He tried to hide the awkward, crooked smile forming on his face. He truly, honestly did.

“But maybe -” She started up again, innocent and clueless to the amount of suffering her following words would cause in the years to come.

“Maybe one day, when we’re older.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As it turns out, things don't get much better, even at Hogwarts.

“Sevvy…” Lily whispered, the way her breaths came soft and slow, syncing to match his own convincing Severus that even if his heart were to stop beating any moment now, he would still die a happy man.

“Don’t call me that,” Severus muttered, once he got his own breath back.

“Why not?” Lily whined, and Snape couldn’t resist the urge to tuck the stray lock of red hair that had fallen in front of him behind her ear. “It’s cute!”

“We’re not children anymore.” In a stern voice, he firmly reminded her.

Lily’s eyes widened, her eyebrows knitting together as she looked away.

“Lily! That Potter boy is here to see you again!” Though Snape didn’t recognize the shrill voice that had interrupted them, regardless of who the owner was, he could have killed them for it.

She leapt up in a panic, as if she’d never wanted to be here with him in the first place.

“Sorry, Severus.” He hated it. Hated it when she apologized to him like that.

“Maybe next time?”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All good things must come to an end.

False hope was a powerful thing.

It could destroy some men, and keep others going. In the end, there was only one certainty. Without a doubt, that hope would eventually fade away. And when it did, it usually gave way for one thing to grow in its place.

Hatred.

\- -

Snape hated Potter the moment he laid eyes on him.

He hated his eyes, that sparkled the way his mother’s once had.

He hated his hair, so much like his worthless father’s.

But what Snape hated the most, more than everything else put together -

Was that this boy, however faultless he may be, was the living embodiment of the fact that the ‘one day’ he had so hopelessly believed in—would never come to pass.


End file.
